Monday
Monthly bookclub FictionLab, hosted by Jenny Rohn, is back at the RI tonight, reading ‘The Cloud Chamber’ by Clare George, who will also be there to discuss it. Free, no booking needed: just read the book and turn up at 7pm. For those who haven’t read that book, you might prefer the UKSciTweetUp: 7pm at the Harrison Pub, just off the Grays Inn Road, all tweeting sci-types welcome. Hashtag: #ukscitweetup.
Tuesday
Up at ZSL, the latest event in their Science and Conservation series is entitled Biodiversity Big Brother. Speakers from ZSL, New York State Museum and Wageningen University will talk about how they are using cameras (both photo and video) to understand animal behaviour in the wild and develop more effective conservation strategies. 6 – 7:30pm, Free, the ZSL Meeting Rooms in Regent’s Park – get there early for a good seat. In Kings Cross, the monthly SameAs meeting, hosted by our sister company Digital Science, discusses reputation in the digital age
Wednesday
Swimmer and environmental campaigner Lewis Pugh talks at the Royal Geographical Society tonight about undertaking the first long distance swim across the North Pole and across a glacial lake on Mt Everest. 7pm, open to members and a guest. Meanwhile at the Dana Centre, Lewis Dartnell and Ray Jayawardhana talk searching planets and the question “which one is most like Earth?” 7pm, free but booking required.
Thursday
No less than eight events today, which are (deep breath): the first day of the Royal Society’s Science Voices conference (1:30pm); Taxidermy at the Natural History Museum (5pm, booking advised); Imperial researchers on research to prevent injury and pain (5:30pm); Museum Lives at the Royal Society (6pm); a Wellcome Collection event on the constant battles throughout history to keep London’s epidemics, pollution and poor hygiene at bay (6pm); the Dan Centre on Breast Cancer in Black Women (7pm); the Friends of Imperial Lecture entitled “Swarm Robots: the future of drug discovery” (7pm, must buy tickets in advance); and last but not least, a second event at the Wellcome Collection on Water Works, looking at first hand accounts of working in disaster areas, from problems like cholera to cutting edge purification techniques (7pm; book)
Friday
A free seminar from the British Geological Society. on their wide-ranging research and regional focus on the Thames. Attendees will learn how to use the BGS data and have a chance to discuss collaboration. Starts 10:30am; book in advance.
Saturday
Part of the Wellcome Collection’s Dirt exhibition, a free event called ‘Dirt Warriors’ with Rob Smith, Thames Water’s chief flusher who has worked in the sewage system underneath London for more than 20 years, responsible for clearing blockages from the labyrinthine network of tunnels, working in cramped, dark and often disgusting conditions. Sounds unmissable to me – starts 3pm.
Sunday
Another Wellcome Collection event, this one slightly more savoury. ‘Liquid History: A Walk Along the Fleet’ invites you on a walking tour to explore one of London’s great lost rivers: the mighty Fleet, a one-time trade route, moat and sewer. Take in medicinal spas, medieval tidal mills, a bishop’s palace from the Wars of the Roses, a Georgian bear-baiting pit, a Dickensian rubbish dump and two of London’s most notorious prisons and ruminate on the stomach-churning reality of London’s relationship with dirt.